Cayo Santiago is an island off the coast of Puerto Rico commonly referred to as monkey island don't be under the impression that it's full of cute little animals ready to play with you because the reality of this place is a lot darker the story began in 1938 when an American primatologist Clarence ray carpenter were least 400 rhesus macaques rather than trying to populate the island he was the first of many to conduct experiments looking at their behaviour in adverse situations he realized that it would be much easier to breed a population close to home instead of chasing around for specimens in
Africa so his idea test site was born for the following 80 years the site was used to conduct tests that ranged from the harmless like observation to the more sinister such as disease research up until recently there were almost 1,000 monkeys living on the island and most of the time it seemed like they were observing the humans rather than the other way around
but you mustn't get too close to them because they are all natural carriers of a virulence strain of herpes be a form of the virus that can be deadly to humans it's such a risk that the first thing any visitor to the island is told is not to let the monkeys pee on you put that to the side though and what you'll find is a beautiful island full of nature's most inquisitive animals as things stand the sight is technically public property so anyone can visit but moves are being made to change the rules so only scientists aligned with the facility are allowed to set foot on the island sadly hurricane Maria that tore through the Caribbean in late 2017 made landfall at Keio Santiago and devastated the island with few places to hide it was
feared that a lot of the monkeys would have lost their lives in the storm luckily the numbers still seem to be thriving though so if you're daring enough to visit a place where humans have to eat food whilst sad inside a cage as monkeys look on you'll find plenty to see super exciting news

2. heard Island​

heard Island is part of a remote sub-antarctic chain of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean it's approximately at the midpoint between Australia and South Africa at only 1,600 miles from the continent of Antarctica it's complete isolation means that this is one of the last places on earth untarnished by human activity or the introduction of alien species it's covered with snow and glaciers with a 2745 metre tall volcano called big been rising at its centre as it's remained undisturbed for centuries the island is a great place to see natural forces at work with constant glacier flows an
active volcano and a wealth of animal species who seek refuge from the deep cold ocean that surrounds it it lies
under the jurisdiction of Australia and has been designated as a marine reserve with a number of creatures that are unique to the island meaning people aren't allowed to get anywhere close without expressed permission it's not the sort of place you'd accidentally show up at either it's a two-week voyage from Australia that passes through some of the most hostile ocean environment on earth the sheer cost of reaching hurt island means that boats only occasionally reach it on average once every three years and they're all chartered for scientific missions sadly the island is more susceptible to global climate changes than many other places and the impact in recent years has been clear the glaciers have noticeably retreated in the past 50 years but this has opened up fertile soil and created numerous ponds and pools that are now teeming with life if you're looking for solitude or simply an adventure and have deep enough pockets then Heard Island is one of the last true wilderness is on the planet and we dare you to visit yes you'll be subjected to endless rain snow and
freezing temperatures but you'll have visited a place where very few have set foot before you

3. Chernobyl
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if you're a daring adventurer and looking for somewhere truly unusual to visit then the town of Chernobyl in northern Ukraine should be on your list it used to be a bustling town with more than 16,000 inhabitants but events that took place in 1986 meant that the entire region was quickly evacuated on the 26th of April that year the nearby nuclear power plant was conducting a systems test on its fourth reactor but something went terribly wrong there was a sudden surge of power and when the emergency shutdown was initiated a further search occurred that triggered a series of explosions the core of the reactor became exposed and caused a fire that sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke into the atmosphere this plume drifted across large parts of the Soviet Union and across Europe and turned Chernobyl into a wasteland the Soviets tried to cover up the incident but when the radiation alarms were set off at the force mark power plant in Sweden more than a thousand kilometers away officials had no choice but to own up to what had happened the event would be one of only two to ever be classified as a level 7 event on the international nuclear Event Scale we the other being the Fukushima disaster in 2011 today there's a 90 mile exclusion zone around the reactor to prevent people from coming into contact
with the most radioactive area that will take hundreds if not thousands of years to recover it's one of the most
radioactive areas in the world and draws scientists and tourists from all over although the time you can spend there is
limited the town was abandoned in such a haste that you can still see shoes cups and toys where they were left in the panic and the Chernobyl fairground which was due to open a few days after the accident lays in ruins never having been used there's one unexpected positive to the evacuation though and that's the effect its had on the local wildlife species roam free and even rare birds have increased their numbers in the area tests are regularly carried out to see if the local fauna is being affected by the radiation and while levels are present it's not affecting animal populations in fact they're thriving which just goes to prove a pretty stark reality the presence of humans has a far more detrimental effect on animal habitats than even a nuclear disaster does

4. The North Sentinel Islands
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the North Sentinel island lies in the Bay of Bengal that is one of the last places on earth that humans live unconnected with
the outside world the tribe known as the Sentinelese have lived here for almost 60,000 years and they don't like visitors the island itself is pristine and unaffected by modern machinery it's covered in thick forests and the coast is surrounded by vibrant unexplored reefs the indigenous people have been recorded throwing arrows at low-flying aircraft and helicopters and any attempts at communication have been rejected with force even following the devastation of the tsunami in 2004 they were seen aiming arrows at an emergency rescue helicopter an act that was taken as evidence that the tribe had survived and should be left alone because of their isolation very little is known of the Sentinelese people they're
hunter-gatherers who move and live in different parts of the island depending on where the food sources are and there are thought to be between 50 and 500 of them attempts in the 70s and 1990 to make contact were responded to with arrow fire and two fishermen who spent the night in there near the island were killed in their sleep this hostility and the clear
disinterest in being in contact with the rest of the world has led to survival international the organization that monitors and protects tribal people recommending that they be left alone their lack of contact with others will also mean that they'll be vulnerable to common diseases that they have no resistance to so any contamination of their society would almost certainly end badly and reinforce their distrust out of respect the Indian government has ruled it illegal to get within five kilometers of North Sentinel the most we'll ever learn about this unique society will be from aerial photography and anthropological study from afar perhaps one day they'll want to venture beyond their Shores but with rumors of cannibalism and extreme tribal rituals it's unlikely there will be too many volunteers one to get to know them

5. snake island
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Brazil if snakes send shivers down your spine then this is the last place on earth you'll want to visit because the forbidden island of Adak l'amanda grande is home to one of the most dangerous snakes in the world located 20 miles south of the coast of South Paulo the Brazilian government has banned anyone from visiting this treacherous place but that doesn't stop a brave few from setting foot on its shores from a distance it seems like any other island in that region but this 4.6 million square foot outcrop is the only known habitat for the bothrops and Solaris also known as the golden lancehead Viper there are a lot of them here too with estimates suggesting as many as four thousand of the snakes riding around the island searching for food growing up to 46 inches long the golden lance-heads get their name because of their distinctive pointed heads they're the dominant predator on the island and even the Brazilian Navy avoided at all costs only daring to venture there to tend to the automated lighthouse that was quickly built in 1909 before the workers fled it's not known for sure how the snakes ended up here but the prevailing theory is that they were trapped when the sea levels rose 11,000 years ago due to their isolation on the island the snakes have developed the fastest acting and most deadly venom of any snake in the world and if the human were to be bitten they would need immediate medical attention to treat the rapidly melting flesh and high probability of death the reason why the Vipers have become so dangerous is simply due to their need to feed the only real source of food for them on the remote island are birds but by the time most snake toxins would incapacitate them they would have been able to fly quite a distance leaving the snake without its meal instead the golden lance-heads developed a way to kill their prey almost instantly by using toxins five times stronger than their mainland relatives numerous stories are told of misfortunate people who found themselves on the island the original lighthouse
keepers were attacked by snakes who king's through the windows and their bodies were found scattered across the island it's the island's name that gives the biggest clue to its danger translating as the island of slash-and-burn fire visit here if you dare but you might not get out alive.